Bedouins, Wealth, and Change: A Study of Rural Development in the United Arab Emirates and the Sultanate of Oman (UNU, 1980, 63 pages)

PART III. Case study: The sultanate of Oman

(introductory text...)

1. An introduction to the new developments in the sultanate of Oman with reference to mobile population groups

2. Changes in the nomad region of Oman

3. Settlement projects in inner Oman, and other measures to develop the rural/nomad region

4. Summary and evaluation of results in the rural/nomad region

1. An introduction to the new developments in the sultanate of Oman with reference to mobile population groups

A Short Description of the Sultanate of Oman

The Sultanate of Oman in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula includes the
traditional heartland of the country, Muscat and Oman, the southern province
Dhofar, which was annexed in 1879, and the peninsula of Musandam, an exclave
which is separated from the rest of Oman by the 90-km-wide Emirate of Fujairah
(fig. 16). Oman, which has an area of 300,000 km2, lies within the region
influenced by monsoon climate but is nevertheless to be numbered with the
countries within the Old World Arid Zone. Rainfall amounts of less than 50 mm
per year are typical of the interior and on the coast between 120 and 150 mm;
only in the high mountains in the north (up to 3,100 m) and in the south (up to
1,600 m does the precipitation exceed 300 mm. In general, however, precipitation
felts very irregularly and over a very small area. It usually occurs in the form
of short, heavy showers, and the water scarcely seeps into the ground as much is
lost as surface run-off. What ground moisture there is evaporates as a result of
the high temperatures. The average temperature in June is between 34 and 38 C.

About 15 per cent of the land's surface is covered by mountains with almost
no vegetation. About 65 per cent comprises the wide gravel plains of wadis which
extend from the mountains or desert to the sea and have thorn and dry savannah
vegetation. The remaining area is a broad desert. Less than 1 per cent of the
land's total area (about 36,000 ha) is taken up by oases and can be cultivated
intensively. Date palms represent the main type of growth in northern Oman. In
the southern province, Dhofar, the coconut palm is dominant. In addition,
papayas, bananas, and lemons are grown in oases throughout the country, and
grains, fodder, and vegetables of all kinds are planted beneath the trees.
Irrigation water comes in most cases from underground falaj systems or from
wells. The largest part of the country's surface is unsuitable for agriculture
but is the home of a mobile, animal-breeding population.

FIG, 16. The Arabian Peninsula

Only the bedouins and shawawi (mountain nomads) are able to exploit the
sparse and extensive pasture with their camel, sheep, goat and, in Dhofar,
cattle herds. Until 1970 the country was more or less isolated from the outside
world and without signs of change but the young Sultan Qaboos, who came to power
by way of a bloodless palace revolt on 23 July 1970, introduced policies
directed at the modernization of the country.

Goals and Measures Adopted for the Development of the
Country

The policies of the new Omani government had three major goals:

the rapid elimination of the backwardness of the country caused
by its isolation under Sultan Said;

the development of an economy that
spans the whole country and is independent of oil exports;

the creation
of an Omani national consciousness.

Obstacles in the way of these goals included the deeply embedded tribal
structures; the lack of direct contact between sultan and tribal leaders; the
independence of tribal heads within their own territories and in relations with
the Sultan of Muscat; and the lack of willingness on the part of the tribal
leaders to accept the policies of the new sultan which were aimed at mediating
among all sectors of the population and the government.

To achieve its aims, the government introduced many measures which affected
the tribal leaders and the tribes. These included the development of a
nation-wide infrastructure and an administrative system that operates across
tribal borders, and the development of a national economy. The success of these
measures has been very limited; economic development has been concentrated on
the area surrounding Muscat. The successful development of the educational and
health programmes is shown in table 21.

These governmental policies applied to the entire country and for the nomadic
tribal population they presented a set of possibilities in which they could
choose to become involved. Measures specifically affecting the tribal population
included the appointment of tribal leaders loyal to the sultan to highly paid
government positions and the granting of land to the lowliest tribal members.
Land distribution had been formerly the privilege of heads of tribes and the
sheikh; the new system was a method of bringing the tribal population into
direct contact with a new government. Soldiers for the Omani army were now
recruited from a wider range, above all from the Omani tribes of the mountains
and deserts, whereas formerly the army had been made up chiefly of enlisted
Baluchis from the coastal region. Moreover, foreign firms were henceforth to
give preference to Omani natives for all jobs which they were capable of doing.
And, in an attempt to create an Omani national consciousness, a quasi-military
salute was introduced in the schools, to be given daily as homage to the sultan.

Among the policies affecting labour were the following. a. A minimum wage,
adjusted to the cost-of-living index, regardless of job qualification was
introduced. b. Employment preference was to he given to workers from tribes in
whose areas a project was being carried out. (This was applied especially to
road construction firms and oil companies, but as of 1976 any Omani can take a
job anywhere in the country.) c. Labourers were hired through the sheikh, not
directly by the company. (The sheikh was then paid the wage and, after deducting
an amount, he paid the workers; this right of the sheikhs was invalidated in
1976, but in some tribes the practice continues.)

Measures were adopted by the government for Dhofar and geared to the
situation there. These include, in addition to the extremely expensive military
activities against "leftist" infiltration from the People's Democratic
Republic of

Yemen:

the payment of a premium for giving up
weapons and for the enlistment of former opponents of the sultan into his
military service;

numerous concessions to youths (e.g., the granting of
lightweight motorcycles, the opening of cinemas, the employment of pupils for
wages by foreign firms during school vacations) designed to keep them from
participating in guerilla activities in the hinterlands;

TABLE 21. Development of the Educational and Health Care Systems in
Oman

1970

1971

1972

1973

1974

1975

1976

1977

Schools

3

16

41

68

111

176

207

257

Pupils

900

6,941

15,332

24,481

35,565

49,229

55,752

75,000

Hospitals and clinics

2

28

47

52

55

64

_

69

Sources: SYB 1976; V.B. No. 7, 814/78.

c. the establishment of an aid service in the areas of education, medicine,
nutrition, and agriculture adapted to the needs of the mountain population; and
d. supply centres set up in the hinterlands, making foodstuffs and medical
services available locally.

In contrast to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, therefore, there is no
concerted strategy for integrating the nomadic population into modern
developments in Oman. Nor are there direct moves by the government in the form
of projects, such as compulsory settlement and land grants, as in neighbouring
countries. There are two projects and these are in the planning stages. They are
the settlement projects at Tanam and Haima, which will be discussed at greater
length below.

Planning Organizations

In order to implement the 1970 decision to develop the country quickly, an
administration was most necessary. But suitable people could not be found and
the appropriate institutions could not be created instantly. Until the
establishment of the Development Council, an organization which has been
co-ordinating and organizing the country's development since 1974, there were
many different phases of planning, and the country paid dearly for its
experience. The government's course of action is sketched briefly below and
reveals the efforts to achieve effective planning.

After Sultan Qaboos had taken over the government, the Development Board that
had been created during his predecessor's last years in office was dissolved and
replaced by:

..... the "Department of Planning and Development" and an
independent "Tender Board" were formed. Thereafter a temporary
"Planning Council" was created which was renamed (1972) as the
"Supreme Council for Economic Planning and Development." The Centre
for Economic Planning and Development was attached to this Supreme Council.
[TFYOP 1976.]

Because there was no functional government structure during the first few
years after 1970, the various planning institutions had responsibility both for
planning and implementation. Misunderstandings and omissions were thus
unavoidable. In order to improve efficiency the General Development Organization
was created by the sultan's decree in 1973 and was raised to the level of a
ministry the same year (Ministry of Development). This ministry was responsible
for the entire development plan and had both planning and implementation
responsibilities. As far as economic development was concerned, its
responsibility extended only as far as there was no ministry responsible for a
particular sector: agriculture, irrigation, fishing, mining, oil, trade,
industry.

As early as 1974, however, the necessity of separating executive and planning
became clear. As a result of this separation of functions, the Ministry of
Development was dissolved and several new ministries were created. All cultural,
economic, and political sectors were thus finally represented by a ministry, and
a government that was clearly structured and capable of effective work was
established. The organizational structure of the government in the Sultanate is
shown in figure 17.

With this clear division of the government into subiectoriented ministries
having their own budgets, the preconditions for effective development in Oman
were established. This development originated in the individual ministries and
was co-ordinated by the Development Council created in 1974 by sultan's decree.
In the Development Council, which is under the chairmanship of Sultan Qaboos,
seven ministries (cf. fig. 17) are represented together with the Under Secretary
for Financial Affairs. The Development Council has a Technical Secretariat which
is headed by a Secretary General and an Under Secretary for Planning. The duties
of the Development Council were laid down by law in 1975:

First:Second:

Council for Financial Affairs. To
discuss the establish an annual development budget and to refer this budget to
the

Third:

To set and approve priorities for development projects
submitted by ministries and government departments before they are
implemented, with a view to ensuring conformity with the approved
priorities, and to achieving complementarily and consistency of projects
in terms of time and substance.

Fourth:

To set priorities to requests for consultant studies
submitted by government ministries and departments and to authorize them
before any commitment is made.

Fifth:

To lay down general rules and terms for extending
Government "loans" and "participation" which are
to be approved by the council for inclusion in the annual development
budget.

Sixth:

To approve privileges proposed by the minister concerned, in
accordance with the law for the Protection of Developing Industry 4/74, if the
proposed privileges include any monopolistic rights or concessions.

Seventh:

government departments, in
so far as the implementation of the development plan is concerned.

Eighth:

To receive from ministries
and government departments follow-up progress reports on the
implementation of projects and consultant studies.

Ninth:

To issue an annual follow-up report on
the implementation of the development plan.

Tenth:

Any other business assigned to the
Council by His Majesty the Sultan. [TFYDP 1976]

The Development Council's responsibility was limited to the planning and
guidance of economic development, as is clearly recognizable from the text of
the law. Executive functions, on the other hand, remained with the individual
ministries. All the planning decisions were made in the different governmental
institutions and in the Development Council with its seat in the Capital Area.
The individual ministries that were directly involved in development set up
offices in all the important towns, i.e., in the settlements chosen as central
places, in order to implement the measures that had been planned. These centres
were usually the seats of the Walis.

It was not only at this lowest level of the administration that appropriate
personnel was initially lacking. Even during the first deliberations concerning
a possible development concept for Oman, the government was dependent on foreign
experts. These specialists, functioning in part as advisers, were without doubt
usually highly qualified; they had, however, no local experience, no knowledge
of the society and of the geography of Oman. Thus, they followed principles that
were based on the pattern of western industrialized countries. An attempt was
made to apply the theoretical concept of development put forth by these experts,
which was known in the literature as "modernization" or
"westernization." This concept was sometimes applied without
consideration of local conditions and without questioning whether an alternative
course of development more appropriate to Oman was available. But in this
respect, much has changed since 1970. The government has gained in experience,
can choose the experts and consultants it still needs, and can have alternative
concepts drawn up in particular cases. Furthermore, since 1974 the Central Bank
has been an additional institution through which expenditures for development
can be controlled.

The basis of all planning is a sufficient supply of funds. The financial
basis for realizing the necessary and expensive development programme is
represented primarily by the government oil revenue which is made up of
royalties and taxes. In 1967, the first tanker was loaded with Omani oil and
since that time Oman has experienced a continuous growth in oil income (table
22).

The jump in income between 1973 and 1974 is striking. In addition to the rise
in the price of crude oil on the world market, the new conditions governing
Omani participation in the oil companies are responsible for this rise. This
will be discussed in greater detail below.

Other government income, insofar as it was not absorbed by the defense budget
for the Dhofar war, was very modest, and was also used for development. This
income includes revenues from the export of agricultural products and from
customs duties that are imposed on certain imports. Oman has also found
financial support for its development plans in friendly Arab governments, in
Europe, and in America. This support grew only after 1974 when it was recognized
abroad that Oman cannot be compared with the small, rich oil-producing
countries: It is a relatively large country with a limited and widely scattered
population, a more expensive type of development to be pursued, and an income
from oil deliveries that is not sufficient to cover the costs of this
development.

Taking out credit naturally means being in debt to the countries supplying
credit. But debts also mean dependence

The foreign debts of Oman, however, have remained within reasonable limits
since they were placed under the control of the Central Bank.

Sufficient financing and the availability of specialists and workers are not
the only prerequisites for the development plans. Fundamental to such planning
are statistics concerning the size of the population, the amount of arable land
available, and the number of settlements as well as maps of different scales and
air photographs.

Up to now, the information concerning the size of Oman's population has been
based only on estimates and a census cannot be taken over night. Numerous
preparations must be made, personnel must be trained, the country must be
divided into census districts, houses must be numbered, streets and residential
areas must be listed, and questionnaires must be prepared. Preliminary work has
been carried out successfully and it should be possible to conduct a census in
the near future. Oman would then be the second Arab country, following Kuwait,
with exact information concerning the size, age, and racial composition of its
population. This will put the government's plans on a firm foundation, and help
for Oman's population will be more carefully directed and more effective than it
has been so far.

Exact maps are a primary prerequisite for the census, for the development of
the infrastructure, and for the development of agriculture. Oman is fortunate in
being able to draw on maps that were prepared in part by Great Britain.
Topographical maps are available at scales of 1 :50,000, 1:100,000 1:250,000,
and 1:1,000,000. In addition, air photographic coverage of the entire country
has been
obtained.